Was the online media right to add fire to the Parvez Rasool controversy?
During yesterday's match, Parvez Rasool, the first player from J & K to represent India, was caught on camera not singing the National Anthem along with his team-mates. Most online media jumped on it and reduced it to the trivial - from uninformed non-opinions to the standard Twitter reactions.
Working in the media industry, we can understand the pressures of getting news out as soon as one can - to the maximum number of readers and get those million page views. In the hyper-charged times that we live in, an issue that combines cricket and the national anthem can only be a gift from the Gods.
However, the case of Parvez Rasool, who has been 'caught' not singing the National Anthem, is some serious overkill - simply because the law does not require anyone to actually sing the national anthem!
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 states: “Whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the Jana Gana Mana or causes disturbances to any assembly engaged in such singing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
In the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in August 1986 in Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State Of Kerala & Ors, the Bench opined,“Standing up respectfully when the National Anthem is sung but not singing oneself clearly does not either prevent the singing of the National Anthem or cause disturbance to an assembly engaged in such singing so as to constitute the offence mentioned in s. 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act…”
By no stretch of
However, going with the times, we appear to be content to sit on the fence. What so and so said on Twitter yesterday appears to have taken precedence over what Supreme Court Justices O Chinnappa Reddy and M M Dutt said in 1986.
Twitter reactions are an absolutely entertaining and, at times informative format that we seem to have come to love - a collection of the vox populi. However, one begins to wonder when seemingly reputed publications like the Financial Times and Indian Express rub shoulders with Zee News and run Twitter reactions on the lines of 'Parvez Rasool 'insults' the national anthem and here's how Twitterati reacted' - where does this end?
Law and convention aside, where do we stand as a nation?
For a state that is already embroiled in trouble, Rasool could be the man who could help the people of the state connect better with the union. After all, what better to unite people than sport, especially when it's your national religion? This plays right into the hands of the people who promote the idea that Kashmir is not an integral part of India.
Rasool could be the icon India could have shown to the people of Kashmir and the international community that our nation is the inclusive land where every Indian has an equal opportunity irrespective of where he is from. However, instead of celebrating the first international player from the state, we seem more interested in picking on his every move, just for having made the fault of coming from a particular state. Who stands to gain from this?
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